Sunday, January 24, 2016

This month’s PCAGOE Challenge is Seasons (spring, summer,
fall, winter).I originally had a
different project in mind but found these adorable 2 inch by 3 inch metal
mini-frames in one of my local stores.

Each frame features a custom mix of polymer clay and details
specific to the season.Once the clay is
applied to the frame, a texture sheet is used to add a design complimentary to
the overall design.Then a glaze is
liberally brushed on then wiped off, leaving the glaze in the deeper
areas.

When I think of spring, I see new leaves and colorful
flowers marking the end of winter and rebirth.For the Spring design, I mixed a soft leafy green polymer clay and used
two of my favorite canes to add the final touch that just shouts spring.The pink flower cane is from my cane
collection.Canes were my first love
when I started working with polymer clay.I still enjoy making the canes even though my work has expanded in many
different directions.The leaf cane was
made specifically for this project although there is plenty left to add to my
cane collection for other projects.It
is actually a combination of 5 leaf canes combined to create a more complex
leaf cane.

Summer is steamy, boisterous and full of fun.And what is happier than sunflowers!So for the Summer frame, I mixed a buttery
yellow and glazed with a soft orange.The texture sheet that I used is a mix of flowers.Then of course the sunflowers.Each flower cane starts with a petal cane
which I usually combine, add a center, then reduce before I use.But for some designs, the individual petal
cane works best.That was the case with
the sunflower.Each petal was
individually shaped and added to the design.And if you look closely at the leaves, you may recognize that they are a
single slice of the leaf cane I used for the combination cane in the Spring
design.

Fall brings to mind clean, crisp air and the beauty of
leaves turning beautiful colors.A “skinner
blend” was created using green, gold and red to cover the frame.Then those same colors were pressed into one
of my favorite molds created by Penni Jo Couch, http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/.Two sizes of leaves plus a couple of acorns
complete the design.

I live in the deep south so I rarely see snow – and I’m
thankful for that!But for the Winter
frame, I wanted snowflakes.For the base
covering I’ve created a “skinner blend” running from a dark royal blue to a
very soft baby blue.The “snowflakes”
were a bit more difficult.After several
tries, I finally decided to keep it simple.I textured some white clay, then added a pretty filigree texture.I used a very small 6 pointed cutter than
looks somewhat like a snowflake to cut out enough “snowflakes” to have a small
snowdrift.I used a silvery pearl stamp
pad to bring out the detail and add a tiny bit of sparkle.

These mini frames were so much fun to do.I’m heading back to the store tomorrow to see
if they have any more of these little frames.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

My mini-mosaics usually measure 4 inches square but at a
recent craft show I had a customer fall in love with a specific message.She decided to check out the rest of the
booths, then come back to the ones where she wanted to purchase things.This actually happens fairly often with shows,
however with handcrafted shows, it could be a problem.Because handcrafted items are not mass
produced, you may go back to that booth that had the perfect gift item only to
find out that the last one with that specific message was already sold!

Well that was the case with this customer.Her son is an artist and the message she fell
in love with was “Life is the ART of Drawing without an Eraser”.She asked if I could do that message on a
mini.Unfortunately the stamp was too
large to fit on a standard 4x4 mini, so I told her that I could make a mini
that was just a little bit taller.So
the 4x5 mini was born.I’m liking this
size so I’ll be adding some of these to my line of minis.

Search This Blog

Pages

Welcome to the wonderful world of polymer clay! The purpose of this blog is to be a place where I can share my love of anything polymer clay with whoever is interested enough to come along for the journey. I'll share what I'm working on and my successes (and failures). I'll also be sharing pictures of some of the great jewelry, beads and office and home decor items that I have available for purchase in my Etsy and Artfire store.

You can check on my recent work and things that haven't made it to the Etsy and Artfire stores on my Flickr picture site. If you mention the HHD blog, I'll refund your Paypal account 10% of the total cost before shipping.